20-21_GF.qxp_Grid 09/10/2021 18:15 Page 2
OVER THE
COUNTER
BY DAVID ROBERTSON OF JP POZZI, ELGIN AND BUCKIE.
No Time To
Say “No” As usual I am rushing…it is Friday 1st October and my monthly meander of thoughts is usually written well before I hit the start of the month in which it is published. A combination of planning problems, Covid challenges, the stock situation and just day to day issues have meant my weeks are disappearing like never before. Throw in a puppy operation, the need to watch Ronaldo’s glorious return and see a certain British spy in the cinema (twice) and I simply struggled to find the time to work the keyboard. I am feeling somewhat ‘shaken and stirred’ and that is without my upcoming engagement as one of the key speakers at the GCA AGM and Conference.
Having entitled my speech ‘Rockstar Retailing’ for the GCA annual conference (on October 14 in Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall) I recognise that it had better be good, as it’s hardly a title that you can pick and then speak with a whimper. So, as a warm-up gig to that very important speech to many of my industry peers, after 24 months with no audience I felt that a ‘tune-up’ would be a good idea. So I accepted an invitation to go and speak to 46 senior year pupils of a High School that is 20 miles away from my businesses. The talk was to be about life, business, pressure, expectation and what they could do with themselves - all in 50 minutes! What I really wanted to get across is that the decisions they have to make at 17/18 years old are by no means final and that changing career and direction is a positive thing in my opinion. I spent 4-5 hours prepping my speech and presentation, then a couple more hours writing notes and highlighting the key points. I believed that all this would be fantastic practice and hopefully confirm to me that I am pretty good at the public speaking thing and can connect with most audiences. I had thought that including pop culture references, talking about social media influencer jobs and linking in some cool images would work well. However, in reality 20
PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE
I was faced with 46 young adults who I couldn’t gauge, who had no idea of who I was and any time anyone did try to join in the debate I couldn’t figure out who was speaking because of the masks! Afterwards I felt thoroughly deflated. I sat in the car park for half an hour going over it. Was it me? Was it the topic? Were
Top: David Robertson said “yes” to going to see the latest Bond film twice already. Above: David isn’t the only one feeling like a ‘hurt puppy’ as his own pup had to undergo an op recently and wasn’t happy.
the slides relevant? In fact, I asked myself a million times why I had agreed to do something that I really did not have the time for and which was now stressing me out! My last big speech was at The Ladder Club in 2019 where the feedback in the
room and afterwards was great and I felt elated. To quote a comedian, after the school talk, “I felt like I died on my arse!” Now I could dissect my speech, but fundamentally, maybe the problem was not what I said, my performance or the kids, but the simply fact I couldn’t say “No”. This tiniest of words somehow fills me with a fear of letting people down, of guilt that I did not help, of me being lazy or that I was not prepared to do things. It also always makes me think that I may not be asked again or that I may miss the opportunity. The main issue for me with the word ‘No’ is that fundamentally I want to please. I want to please my friends, my family, my work colleagues, and many times I say “Yes” not because I want to or because I am excited to do the task in hand, but simply because I am not brave enough to say “No”. This coming week I have also agreed to something that I am struggling to do as it clashes with something else, but it is too late. I have said “Yes” and to pull out at this stage is not an option. This means little time to myself this weekend as I have to fit it in a number of things, including writing this column. Many of you may wonder why I do this every month. Trying to find something different to write about is not easy, but I enjoy it! and it is a privilege to be able to share my thoughts and opinions on many